Has anybody experienced a Runtime Error playing Serpent Moon? It has happened to me twice,randomly, which makes the game crash. I can restart the game and continue from my last savegame but now I have to save pretty often in case it re-accurs. I would appreciate some help on this. Thanks,
Sandy

Contact Bill, Sandy. I'm having a problem with "Runtime Error 502 - Image does not exist at line 3376". I get that when I try to start the game. If I keep trying, the game usually does start but I never know if it will. Bill and I are talking about it. Your input might help both of us. All 3 of us.

Gil.

Gil, I HAVE contacted Bill. He asked me if the runtime message occurred during a movie clip or during interactive play, and what did the message say. Now that I have that info from YOU, I'll contact him again. Thanks for your input.
Sandy

Sandy, I haven't replied to his last email yet. Just too tired and frustrated but I'll get in touch again tomorrow and answer his questions. Btw, are you getting the same Runtime error I am or another one?

Gil.

I haven't had that runtime error again, but if I DO get it, I'll make note of the exact words.
Sandy

The problem child is here again. I can't get Billy's game to run at all now. I keep getting the error message: Runtime Error 502 - image does not exist at line 3376. That after I click Play and the screen goes black and stays black until I close the program with Task Manager.

At first, the game would play sporadically. Now it won't and, what's more, the downloaded Demo won't play either though I'd had no problem with it before.

I've done everything I can think of to fix this. I've uninstalled and reinstalled several times. I went to msconfig and used all the options it gave me - diagnostic startup, selective startups - nothing helped. I've deep-scanned this computer, updated my graphics card, scanned with Malwarebytes, downloaded a DirectX End User file from MS in case I was missing a runtime .dll, and even dug out the code key from my last computer and upgraded this one to Win7 Pro 64 bit hoping something would 'add in' and help but to NO avail. I'm at my wit's end (as usual) and I would surely appreciate it if any of you can think WHAT might get rid of this error!

Gil.

I found that "Runtime Error 502 - image does not exist" error discussed ***here*** where it looks like Billy was beta testing the game. He says

and "Plotinus" later said he got it running by using compatibility mode. Then later on he said it began running without compatibility mode. Very strange.

Another suggestion was to run the game using administrator mode (right-click and choose Run as Administrator).

Interestingly there was mention of a "slowdown routine" that is trying to selfadjust depending on how fast your computer is -- so the game doesn't run too fast on faster computers. So if you have a brand new and fast computer and the game is chugging along, the "slowdown routine" might be overcompensating (unless Billy removed the "slowdown routine" from the game).

I get the same message, and it runs very slow. I had no trouble with the demo. I uninstalled the demo before installing. I shut down Norton, screen savers, and anything else I could think of. Got the game today and I mam very disappointed. Want to play this weekend.

I honestly can't remember if I tried compatibility mode. I'm using Win7 and Plotinus said that he's using Vista though I wouldn't think that would make a difference. Still, I'll go back and check that. Is there any possibility that setting my screen resolution (1200 x 900) to the game resolution (1024 x 768) would accomplish anything? Virtual Nomad suggested disabling visual themes and Aero. I may as well try it.

Anyway, I feel for you, VRMpls2. I got far enough in the game when I could play it to know that I really, really want to go on with it.

Btw, Jenny100, that was fascinating reading. Thanks for the link.
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Well, just so you know, I went through all the options for XP and Vista in compatibility mode and still got that error message. I do remember something like 'DarkProject' (pretty sure it wasn't DarkVideo) showing up somewhere once or twice, probably in Task Manager.

I'm over it for now. I'll try disabling visual themes and Aero tomorrow.

Gil.

I have win 7 and don't know how to disable visual themes and never heard of AERO. Im did compatibility and administrator, and it slightly helped, but is choppy and slow. That will take too long to play this way and take away from the effects. The monster (after playing the tape) was very bad....couldn't see him and it cut off. I e-mailed the company and hope to hear from him. I got it today and really want to play it this weekend, when I have lots of time.

Sorry you are having trouble... What's really weird is only a few people have this error (I cannot seem to re-create it on any of my test computers)

Good investigative work Jenny... LOL! (I forgot about that post)

I am playing around with some ideas - but in the mean time - if any other GameBoomers have any ideas - please feel free to post suggestions.

Not sure if there are any common things going on between traveler and VRMpsl systems. Win 7, Same video card, etc.

Perhaps there's something running in background on both systems that the game simply doesnt like... or perhaps there's something that could be adjusted in their video card panel settings. Anti-Alaising off/on, etc.
(just thinking outloud)

I'm not sure I've got this licked but so far Serpent Moon is loading and playing. (I've closed out and reopened it twice.) If it does continue to open and play, then the answer may be to do just what Bill advises ***right in the game*** under Options: right click on the game icon, select Properties, select Compatibility, click Run as Administrator, select 'disable visual themes' and 'disable desktop composition' (whatever that is), then click Okay.

All this time and I never looked under Options for an answer, being the type, I suppose, that jumps right in without reading the Manual or anything else. Not the brightest crayon in the box, am I?

At any rate, as I said, so far, so good and I thought I'd let you all know in case anyone else getting a runtime error wants to try following Bill's in-game advice.

Fingers crossed,

Gil.

I have tried it all. It starts out with the video choppy and then a blank screen. If I do alt, ctrl and delete, it will come off with the error message. Don't know why when the demo worked. This is frustrating. I was hoping to play this weekend when I had time. Nothing seems to work. Let me know if you think of anything else. Vicki

Ask Bill to send you a new 'black.bmp' file to stick in your game's Media folder. I wasn't sure that did anything...certainly it didn't until I followed the directions above after putting it in there...but it may be your answer. Click Okay when the game asks you if you want to replace the file.

Just out of curiosity, what version of Windows are you running?

Gil.

I am running windows 7. I didn't have trouble with the demo or any other game. I got the black file, and he e-mailed me a patch. It did a little but not all. The video at the start is still choppy, but not as much as before. At least it now gets to the game to load. My mouse was acting funny, and I tried another, but it still did it. It was just like it was responding a little after I moved it, instead of right away. I can play in the meantime, but that will take away the effect. He is really trying. I feel bad because it is a holiday weekend and he is doing this. Hope it works better, but I will still play it this way. Waited for the game for a long time.

With Billy's help, I think my problem was solved. I had installed it on my second hard drive and apparently when I uninstalled teh demo, it kept a lot of the files. I uninstalled the game and deleted the demo files. I restarted the computer and re-installed it. I turned off Norton until it finished, and then turned it back on. It is working very well now. Don't know how these all worked against each other, but it is working now, and that is good. Hope this helps others. Vicki

That's interesting. Thanks for letting us know what worked for you.

Bill's the best, isn't he? I know, because he emailed me shortly after, that he was up in the wee hours Sunday morning trying to figure out what was causing our problems. Talk about caring!

Gil.

"Bill's the best"

I second that !!
He was extremely helpful when I had a problem

He worked very hard on the holiday weekend for the problem. Not many people would do that. With his suggestions, and from what I already knew, it worked. He also made a patch. That sort of worked, but I think the things on my computer kept it from working well. When I uninstalled the files that were left behind and re-installed it, the game works perfectly. I love the game so far. Thanks for all your suggestions. They helped also, and I did learn a lot. Vicki

I'm glad to hear Bill was able to help you and that your game works now.